Nowhere to Hyde

A Photographic Essay about the inconsistency found in the sidewalks in the Hyde Park area and the need for them to be safer, more accessible and easily added to the neighborhoods.

Pedestrians walking in the street since there are no sidewalks.

Just as the title alluded. Hyde Park has an issue in its neighborhoods: there are no sidewalks to walk on and pedestrians have no where to go besides on the streets. To find out why that is I went on dozens of walks and came to these conclusions:

• Sidewalks promote the economy and health of a community
• The sidewalks are accessible but the politics of sidewalks are not
• There isn’t a visible relationships between safety and sidewalks

Sidewalks promote the economy and health of a community.

The sidewalks provide a social aspect to the neighborhood with easy access to everyone’s yards. This promotes things like garage sales, yard sales, cookouts, neighborhood libraries and even the famous Eeyore’s Birthday Party down in Harris Park.

Economic benefits that the sidewalks encourage: garage sales and parking meters.

The economy is helped by the walkability of neighborhoods, because people are able to just walk to a close by store or restaurant by using the sidewalks

Austin is a healthy city and the sidewalks promote running and being active outside. There are also trails that are connected to the sidewalks and gardens in between the road and the sidewalk.

The sidewalks are accessible but the politics of sidewalks are not

Sidewalks have become controversial recently because some families believe that they don’t want sidewalks because that will make the buses not come to their homes because if a school is walkable, then buses are not required to come.

Hyde Park is vert privileged since it is near the hospitals and are able to be high priority for Austin. In 2016 they decided that they were going to try and expand the sidewalks and make it more mobile and improve the health of the city through these sidewalks. Austin is also extremely politically correct and accessible and has rumble strips for the visually impaired to be able to walk around.

Hyde Park gone so far to make their sidewalks political and have the huge CodeNEXT voting. Basically there is two sections of Hyde Park and one is affordable and walkable and accessible but it is zoned against its other counterpart in the North that is not walkable, affordable and accessible. There is also a big push for Hancock on 38th street to become a park instead of a private golf course. This would be a huge amount of acres that would be much larger than Harris Park’s tiny trails

There isn’t a visible relationships between safety and sidewalks.

This section of Austin is pretty safe and there isn’t a lot of crime reports or vandalism and there is a joyful nature to the neighborhoods. Even at night there are neighborhoods that are lit with sidewalks and ones that are not lit and have no sidewalks, but regardless they feel safe.

Hyde Park at night with street lights lighting the sidewalks.

Problems in Hyde Park

1. Adding Sidewalks

There is an issue with the licensing and process of adding sidewalks because it is not accessible to everyone. It is only easy if you were to be able to hire lawyers, have connections and lots of time.

2. Consistent sidewalks

There are a lot of areas that the sidewalks end and you have to walk in the road. This is a safety concern because if families are walking in the neighborhoods they are not protected from the oncoming traffic.

Lack of sidewalks in Hyde Park forcing pedestrians to walk

3. Curb Zones for Safety on Artery Roads

On roads in Austin that are considered to be artery roads they required to have sidewalks, but not required to have buffer zones in between where the pedestrians walk and cars drive.

No buffer zone between where pedestrians walk and the cars drive by

This story is still being worked on and edited, refresh for updated work!